A Vision Change for Speeches and Writings of AD Patel, 1929-1969 A Vision Change for Speeches and Writings of AD Patel, 1929-1969 edited by Brij V Lal THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY E PRESS E PRESS Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/ National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Lal, Brij V. Title: A vision for change : speeches and writings of AD Patel, 1929-1969 / Brij V Lal. ISBN: 9781921862328 (pbk.) 9781921862335 (ebook) Subjects: Patel, A. D. (Ambalal Dahyabhai), 1905-1969. Fiji--Politics and government--20th century. Fiji--History. Dewey Number: 320.099611 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design and layout by ANU E Press Cover photograph by Robert Norton. Printed by Griffin Press This edition © 2011 ANU E Press Contents Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Part I. Quest for Equality: The Political Struggle 1: Address to the 1965 London Constitutional Conference, 26 July 1965 . . 1 2: Suva Town Hall Resolutions at a Public Meeting of Indians, 30 November, 1929 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3: Common Roll Conference with Sir Murchison Fletcher, 27 December 1929 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4: Memorandum to Governor, 28 December 1929 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 5: Governor to Secretary of State, 2 January 1930 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 6: Memorandum to the Governor, 5 March 1935 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 7: A Delegation to the Governor, May 1935 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 8: Opposition to Nomination over Election, 19 May 1935 . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 9: Conundrums of Colonial Legislature, 21 December 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . 15 10: Deed of Cession Debate, 16 July 1946 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 11: In Defense of Democracy, 2 September 1948 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 12: On Separate Representation for Muslims, 9 December 1949 . . . . . . . 30 13: Wanted: A Common Electoral Roll, 16 August 1956 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 14: Last But Not Long!, 1 February 1960 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 15: An Astounding Statement, 3 March 1960 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 16: A Constitutional Mirage, 13 April 1961 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 17: Welcome to Sir Derek Jakeway, 24 February 1964 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 18: Protest Letter to Sir Derek Jakeway, 24 January 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . 40 19: Public Notice (Undated, 1965) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 20: Memorandum to Sir Derek Jakeway, 26 January 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . 43 21: Resolutions passed at the AGM of the Federation Party at Lautoka, 25 April 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 22: Letter to Sir Derek Jakeway, 30 April, 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 23: Sir Derek Jakeway to Patel, 6 May 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 24: Memorandum to Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council, April 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 25: Member of Social Services Office Notes, Pre-1965 constitutional conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 v 26: Opening Address to the 1965 Constitutional Conference, 26 July 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 27: Interview with Malcolm Billings, BBC, 31 July, 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 28: The Indian Delegation’s Press Conference, 10 August 1965 . . . . . . . 56 29: Letter to Anthony Greenwood, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 12 August 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 30: Post-1965 Constitutional Conference: Century Theatre, August 1965 . . 63 31: Response from Anthony Greenwood, 9 September 1965 . . . . . . . . . . 67 32: Debate on London Constitutional Conference, 15 December 1965 . . . 68 33: Federation Party Letter to A .D . Patel, 6 August, 1966 . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 34: The Secretariat to AD Patel, 23 September 1966 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 35: Launch of the 1966 Election campaign, Century Theatre, July 1966 . . . 82 36: Political Address, Sigatoka Valley, 25 September 1966 . . . . . . . . . . . 90 37: Call for a new Constitutional Conference, 1 September 1967 . . . . . . . 97 38: Federation Party Convention, Ba, 28-29 June, 1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 39: Political Statement by A . D . Patel, 30 August 1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 40: Final Letter from Sir Derek Jakeway, 7 November 1968 . . . . . . . . . 112 41: Pre-Independence Talks, Suva, 12 August 1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Part II. Bitter Sweet: The Politics of the Fiji Sugar Industry, 1943-1969 The 1943 Strike: Contemporary Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121 42: An Open Letter to Governor,12 August 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 43: The Statement Made By A .D . Patel in Nadi Court, 12 August 1943 . . 124 44: Report of the Commission: Letter to Governor, 12th August 1943 . . 125 45: What Happened in Suva? 21-26 August 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 46: Growers Advised to Cut, nd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 47: Inaccuracies and Omissions in the Council Paper: ‘Dispute in the Sugar Industry’,1 September 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 48: Can You Blame the Growers? 6 September 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 49: Letter to Colonial Secretary, 20 September, 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 50: Telegram to Secretary of State for Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 51: Negotiations 26 December 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 52: Ratu Sukuna to AD Patel, 28 December 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 53: AD Patel to Ratu Sukuna, 28 December 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 54: Ratu Sukuna to AD Patel, 29 December 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 55: AD Patel to Ratu Sukuna, 30 December 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 56: Ratu Sukuna to AD Patel, 31December 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 vi 57: Ratu Sukuna to AD Patel, 2 January 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 58: AD Patel to Ratu Sukuna, 3 January 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 59: Ratu Sukuna to AD Patel, 4 January 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 60: Reforming the Sugar Industry, 21 December 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 61: A Commission at Gunpoint? 6 June 1960 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 62: A Drive for Disunity, 30 June 1960 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 63: Negotiations and a Plan for the Future, 7 July 1960 . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 64: Memorandum to Mr . Julian Amery, 14 October 1960 . . . . . . . . . . . 175 65: Submission to the Eve Commission, 9 March 1961 . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 66: Reforming the Sugar Industry, 2 May 1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 67: Ending Eve's Legacy, 12 May 1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 68: The Denning Arbitration, 19th August 1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210 Part III. Land and Livelihood 69: All-Fiji Indian Conference, 30 October 1938 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 70: Economic Condition of Indians in Fiji Paper read at the All-Fiji Indian Conference by AD Patel, 30 October 1938 . . . . . . . . 232 71: The Misadministration of Land, 20 August, 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 72: Post-War Agricultural Development, 20 February 1946 . . . . . . . . . . 240 73: Delay Is Dangerous, 3 September 1949 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 74: Their Darkest Hour, 17 September 1949 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 75: A Sop to Evictees, 15 October 1949 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 76: Adding Insult to Injury, 26 November 1949 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 77: Diversification of Agricultural Production, 4 November 1956 . . . . . . 253 78: Fruit Industry, 31 May 1956 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 79: Diet and its Effect, 3 August 1959 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 80: Fiji’s Growing Pains, 17 December 1959 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 81: The Medicine, 7 March 1960 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 82: Landlord and Tenant Bill, 20 July 1966 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 83: Nationalizing the Gold Mining Industry, 31 January 1968 . . . . . . . . 271 84: Agriculture Landlord & Tenant Ordinance, 30 January 1969 . . . . . . 278 85: Letter from Justin Lewis QC to AD Patel, 15 September 1969 . . . . . 281 Part IV. Society and Culture 86: Swami Avinasananda to AD Patel, 15 October 1937 . . . . . . . . . . . 283 87: Letter to Swami Avinasananda, 30 September 1939 . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 88: Sangam Registration, 3 November 1937 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 89: Letter to Governor Sir Harry Luke, nd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 90: Sangam's Petition to the Governor, 12 December 1947 . . . . . . . . . 288 91: To Drink or Not to Drink, 25 November 1947 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .292 vii To Drink or Not to Drink, II (1969) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 92: Ring in the Saints, 6 January 1952 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 93: The ‘Flowers’ of Fiji, 20 June 1952 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 94: Welcome, Mr . Dugdale, 4 August 1952 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 95: The Indian Problem in Fiji, 8 August 1952 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 96: Ramakrishna Mission in Fiji, 28 September 1952 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 97: Fragments of a Diary 1952 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 98: Divide and Rule, 15 December 1954 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314 99: Fijians and Fijians, 29 January 1954 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 100:Segregation Stands Condemned, 11June1954 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 101: A Bogey Laid, 30 July 1954 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 102: With Malice Aforethought, 2 September 1955 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 103: Why Access to Books? 23 September 1955 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 104: First Things Last? 14 October 1955 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 105: A University College for the South Pacific, 26 April 1956 . . . . . . . . . 325 106: Invite the United Nations, 2 August 1956 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 107: On Sadhu Kuppuswami, 9 August 1956 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 108: Budgeting for Educational Progress, 6 December 1956 . . . . . . . . . 329 109: Library Service for Fiji, 29 August 1957 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 110: Progress & Custom, 7 November 1957 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 111: The Great Irony, 2 July 1959 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 .34 112: Address to the Fiji Teachers Union, 9 September 1964 . . . . . . . . . 336 113: Social Security in Fiji, 26 March 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 114: Address to the Fijian Teachers Association, 4 May 1965 . . . . . . . . 341 115: Capital Punishment: Letter from Church Leaders, 12 May 1966 . . . 344 116: On the Abolition of Capital Punishment, 26 May 1966 . . . . . . . . . . 346 117:Why I support Family Planning, 17 August 1966 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 118: The University of the South Pacific, 21 March 1967 . . . . . . . . . . . 353 119: A Common Name, 1 August 1967, Interpretation Bill . . . . . . . . . . 359 120: Letter to Vasantika Patel from Ocean Island, 1 November 1967 . . . 360 121: Out of Many Races—One Nation, Nadi Jaycees, 1968 . . . . . . . . . 362 122: Bau—Renovation, 13th December 1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 123: New Year's Greetings, 1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370 124: Hail Deliverer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 viii Acknowledgments For their support and kindness over the years, I thank the family of AD Patel, in particular the late Mrs Leela Patel. The National Library of Australia helped me get access to Fiji newspapers and the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau provided additional assistance, thanks to Ewan Maidment and Kylie Moloney. The National Archives of Fiji has my deep gratitude for all the help they have given me over nearly thirty years. Bob Norton was, as always, generous in sharing his own research material and experience of working on Fiji since the 1960s. Kamal Iyer and Jagindar Singh have given unstinted support to my efforts to understand the complex dynamics of Indo-Fijian politics over the years. ‘Bade Bhai’ Harish Sharma read a draft of the manuscript, picked up typos and made many helpful suggestions, as did Jack Corbett of my own Department. Doug Munro and Robert Norton made many helpful suggestions for revising the Introduction. Maxine McArthur prepared the manuscript for publication with exemplary patience and care. Padma has been my indispensible Rock of Gibraltar for this project and for everything else I have done in my professional life. My Department of Pacific and Asian History has my gratitude for giving me the time and space to complete this work. I am eternally grateful to whatever quirk of fate which brought me to The Australian National University. For research and reflection, there is no other place in the world quite like it. Brij V Lal Canberra ix